From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a minister, educator, politician, and public education advocate in early Ontario, Canada.

Statue of Egerton Ryerson, on campus of Ryerson University.

He was born in Charlotteville, Norfolk County in the then-colony of Upper Canada. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at 18, and was forced to leave the home by his Anglican father. Becoming an itinerant minister - or circuit rider - in the Niagara area, his life in a politically disadvanted religion formed his tolerant views. In addition to serving as Episcopal Methodism's chief defender in the 1820s against John Strachan and other members of the powerful Family Compact, Ryerson also became the first Book Steward of the Methodist Book and Publishing House and the editor of the House's newly founded weekly newspaper the Christian Guardian in York, Upper Canada in 1829.

Ryerson helped found the Upper Canada Academy, of which he was the first principal, in Cobourg; it later became Victoria College, now a part of the University of Toronto. He fought for many secularization reforms, to keep power and influence away from any one church, particularly the Church of England in Upper Canada which had pretentions to establishment. Ryerson's advocacy of Methodism contributed to the eventual sale of the Clergy Reserves--large tracts of land that had been set aside for the "maintenance of the Protestant clergy" under the Constitutional Act of 1791.

Such secularization also led to the widening of the school system into public hands. Governor General Sir Charles Metcalfe asked him to become Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada in 1844. It is in this role that Ryerson made his historical mark.

His study of educational systems elsewhere in the Western world led to three School Acts, which would revolutionize education in Canada. His major innovations included libraries in every school, an educational journal and professional development conventions for teachers, a central textbook press using Canadian authors, and securing land grants for universities.

The Normal School at St. James Square was founded in Toronto in 1852, and became the province's foremost teacher's academy. It also housed the Department of Education as well as the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts, which became the Royal Ontario Museum. An agricultural laboratory on the site led to the later founding of the Ontario Agricultural College and the University of Guelph. St. James Square went through various other educational uses before it eventually became part of Ryerson University.

He was also a writer, farmer and sportsman. He retired in 1876, and died in 1882 having left an indelible mark on Canada's education system. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

• On line biography by Nathanael Burwash